Elif Safak
Elif Safak
Elif Şafakis a Turkish author, columnist, speaker and academic...
NationalityTurkish
ProfessionAuthor
CountryTurkey
children past breathe
The past lives within the present, and our ancestors breathe through our children.
army past hands
We're stuck. We're stuck between the East and the West. Between the past and the future. On the one hand there are the secular modernists, so proud of the regime they constructed, you cannot breathe a critical word. They've got the army and half of the state on their side. On the other hand there are the conventional traditionalist, so infatuated with the Ottoman past, you cannot breathe a critical word. They've got the general public and the remaining half of the state on their side.
moving mean past
The world does not move through time as if it were a straight line, proceeding from the past to the future. Instead time moves through and within us, in endless spirals. Eternity does not mean infinite time, but simply timelessness.
past illumination mind
If you want to experience eternal illumination, put the past and the future out of your mind and remain within the present moment.
mistake acceptance past
One thing that has helped me personally in the past was to stop interfering with the people around me and getting frustrated when I couldn’t change them. Instead of intrusion and passivity, may I suggest submission? Some people make the mistake of confusing “submission” with “weakness”, whereas it is anything but. Submission is a form of peaceful acceptance of the terms of the universe, including the things we are currently unable to change or comprehend.
passing-away doe world
While the parts change, the whole always remains the same. For every thief who departs this world, a new one is born. And every decent person who passes away is replaced by a new one. In this way not only does nothing remain the same but also nothing ever really changes.
above chaotic characters demand intuition placing process pulling puppeteer rather resist
I write as if I were drunk. It is a process of intuition rather than placing myself above my story like a puppeteer pulling strings. For me, it's a scary, chaotic process over which I have little control. Words demand other words, characters resist me.
bit element food humour introduce turkish
I write with humour about sadness, to introduce an element of sweet to the sour, a bit like Turkish food.
across biggest connect create gender god religious
God is the biggest storyteller, and when we create stories, we connect with him and with each other across cultural, religious and gender boundaries.
connected god stories
For me, writing stories is one way of feeling connected to the universe and God.
childhood entire observing spent
I spent my entire childhood observing people. I still do.
believe books change connected empathize happened learn save saved stories
Books change us. Books save us. I know this because it happened to me. Books saved me. So, I do believe through stories we can learn to change, we can learn to empathize and be more connected with the universe and with humanity.
families grow perhaps raised single
I find families intriguing, perhaps because I did not grow up in one. I was raised by a feminist, independent, single mother, a divorcee.
languages love
I love commuting between languages just like I love commuting between cultures and cities.